Guardians of Time
by ThinMintE
Summary: The Tom-Toms are at it again, disrupting time and stealing crystals. But when things go array, suddenly everything starts falling apart! Sweepers stuck frozen in time, monsters with new powers, and deadly old foes reappear as you and Blinx, alongside Team Night Kings, race against time to stop the factory, and the universe as you know it, from collapsing.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Mission Time**

**Hey guys, welcome to my Blinx fan-fiction. For this story, it's you who will join Blinx in your next adventure. It will be in first person, and have you in the story. You all know what that means, let's get going! **

**Edit: Okay, I walked into this blind. I had no idea what a reader insert was like. Now I have read a few. Going to make this better though. Now, onto the story!**

"Wake up. Y/n, we're going to be late," a voice said. I distantly felt someone shaking my shoulder, and I groaned, wanting to stay in bed. The voice gave an exasperated sigh. "We have to sweep the Dual Season World today. We can't be late." I finally opened my eyes and looked up to see Blinx looking down at me.

"Alright, I'm up," I said as I got out of bed. I grabbed a f/f and a milk carton from our mini fridge while Blinx pulled his goggles over his striped orange fur that formed a v on his forehead and tannish white face. I also grabbed my f/c jacket, and put it on, stuffing the food into my pockets. I grabbed my sf/c goggles and hung them around my neck. I reached under my bed and pulled out my sweeper, a TS-16000. Placing my sweeper on my back, I grabbed my boots, white as a base color with f/c steel on the toes. I tucked my sf/c pant legs into the boot so it wouldn't flop around. I grabbed my gloves from the stand, both white in color. I grabbed my communicator from the drawer in the stand and put it on my nd/h (nondominant hand) wrist. I walked over as I started eating my f/f to where Blinx was waiting by the door. We exited to the dorm common. I rang the bell under the neckband on Blinx's jacket, which earned me a playful punch on the shoulder. As we passed a mirror, his bright green eyes met my e/c ones. I also noticed the fur/hair on my head was a mess, and I tried to fix it. As soon as I was satisfied, Blinx messed up my work. I huffed as him.

"So where're we meeting the rest of the team?" I asked Blinx.

"It's just us."

I looked at him in surprise as we hopped onto the moving pathways. "But the Dual Season World is a very dangerous world even for high ranked sweepers like you."

"I guess it's a simple mission," Blinx said. I went with this when we came to the gate room door for the world. We entered and found the technician keeping Sweepers from the gate. When he saw us, he came over.

"I hope you two are ready for this. We have a big time disruption in between the border. You guys just have to do reconnaissance," he said. "Report what you find to the CEO directly." With that, he walked over to the controls to open the gate for us.

"This must be big. I hope the Tom-Toms didn't cause another B1Q64 incident," Blinx sighed.

"I don't think anything like a Chronohorn will spawn," I said. He didn't look convinced. We walked up the stairs and onto the platform, and a second later the light of the goal gate flared up. We raced at the light and jumped off the platform. While trying to outdo the other with flips while we were falling, I didn't notice the rainbow tints to the normally pure white light until we were in the goal gate.

"Did you notice the light of the gate?" I asked Blinx as we landed in a snow drift.

"Yeah, but why did we have to land here?" I snickered at his annoyance, as I just remembered he hates cold places more than anything else.

"Well, the border is right over there," as I pointed to our right at the field of grass about ten meters away. We walked over to the grass, and I paused for a split second when a warm breeze crossed my face.

"So we walk along the border until we see the disturbance and then report back," I said. With that, we started walking through the waist high grass along the snow banks. It took half an hour until we saw any type of activity.

"Get down," I whispered as I pulled Blinx down. We peered through the grass at a pig wearing a red and white striped shirt and black leather jacket with no sleeves. He had on blue pants and gray boots, and a pair of black gloves. He also had a bushy beard and blacks goggles over his eyes. We watched as he tread through the grass in a perpendicular line to us, pacing back and forth. I tired to move so we could move around him, but Blinx stopped me. Just then, another pig, this one wearing a similar outfit but no beard walked up to the first pig.

"Are all the preparations in place?" Beardy asked.

"Yes sir. We almost have everything set up. Once it's done, we can grind all the time crystals we want," Shaven said excitedly.

"Boss will be happy about that," Beardy said as they walked away.

"I guess we know what the disruption is. Let's follow them," I said as I crouched stood and started to follow them. Blinx followed me and we crept behind the pigs. More than once they stopped and we had to as well and duck down to avoid being seen. We went like this for another half hour until we came up to a strange domed arena, filled with time monsters.

"Woah. That's one crazy machine," Blinx said in a low voice.

"Let's get a closer look," I said. We snuck closer to the strange arena. When we got a better look, the dome seemed to be supported by steel beams leading to the center, with seats for observation. The arena was made of steel and had a pair of guards at every entrance. Tom-Toms were entering and exiting with bags over their shoulders, some empty and some full. Due to the sounds from some of the bags, we guessed the contents were time monsters. How the managed to capture them we don't know. We could also see some holes in the floor of the arena, just big enough for time crystals to fit in.

"No wonder there were no reported time monsters in this world," I whispered. "The Tom-Toms are capturing them all and sticking them here."

"But why?" Blinx asked with a fearful and questioning face. "They don't do anything without reason. If they're going to this amount of extremes to collect time crystals, they're planning something big. Like another B1Q64. I don't want another one of those, and neither does anyone at the Time Factory." A visible shiver ran down his spine as I looked at him questionably. He closed his eyes. "We need to stop this soon," he said opening his eyes, face set in determination.

"Well you two aren't going to be going anywhere," said a gruff voice behind us. We turned to face Beardy from earlier and his pal.

**So what do you guys think? I hope you all like the first chapter. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Storm**

_Great _I thought as I tried to think of a plan to get away. Blinx beat me to it. Reaching for his sweeper, he whipped it out and hit the button on the top of the handle. A blue hue appeared around us and everything froze, signifying a Pause control. We jumped to our feet and broke off in a run. The Pause ended a few seconds later, and I could hear footsteps behind us. We kept running.

"Follow me!" I yelled as the Tom-Toms chased us. The border was only a few feet away, and we could hide there. I pulled my sweeper off my back to see what controls I had_. Only a Record and a Retry. I want to save that Record incase we can't lose them. _The snow was making it very hard to run. I saw a large snow drift ahead of us and ran towards it. The wind was picking up and snow was starting to fall, meaning we needed to lose them before a storm hit. Once we were over the peak, I dove into the snow, and pulled Blinx in after me. I covered him with snow so his fur wouldn't give us away, and I buried myself as well. The blizzard was really going now, making it hard to see.

"Where are they!?" a frustrated voice behind us said. Just then the Tom-Toms crested the hill and walked down, trying to protect their faces from the wind.

"It was only two, what's the big deal?" Clean Face asked.

"The orange one was Blinx! And the f/c and sf/c one was y/n!" Beardy yelled. "Blinx is the best Sweeper they have, and y/n is not only a dangerous one to us as well, but Blinx's apprentice! Not fully trained, but soon will be and has a lot of potential talent! To take us down!"

"Well do we tell the boss?" Clean Face asked.

"Of course not! That would ruin everything! We lost them now, so we better head back." With that, the duo went back to the arena. Once I couldn't hear them anymore, I dug myself out and helped Blinx as well.

"Apprentice? What were those two thinking?" I asked as I dug myself out of the snow

"They don't know our terms for sweepers in field training, like you. But you couldn't have thought of a plan NOT involving snow?" he asked as we continued digging.

"No. But we need to get out of this blizzard if we have a chance at finding the Goal Gate." And we walked back the way we came. But with the blizzard, we got turned around and lost.

"My communicator can't pick up a signal, or get a map," I said after walking for an hour, looking at my staticy screen.

"Me neither," Blinx replied. He sighed. "Guess we better find a place to wait out the storm." Just then, a Spiker spawned, and started rolling at us. Moving to the side, I drew my sweeper and activated it. As the Spiker uncurled, I shot it, making it resolve into two crystals. I let Blinx sweep them up, and his sweeper vibrated.

"Sweet. A Retry." We put our sweepers back, and moved on. It took half an hour to find a cave.

"When do you think the storm will let up?" I asked as we sat opposite each other inside an ice cave.

"No idea. In this world, storms can last a hour to an few days, due to the different air masses at the border. We could be stuck here a while."

"Might as well get comfy," I said with a sigh. We sat in silence for about another hour before I dozed off.

-XxXxX-

A cold wind blew across my face, waking me up. Looking around, I saw Blinx was sleeping and curled up into a ball. I sighed. The storm was still blowing around, but there were no time monsters around at least. I was about to close my eyes again when I heard footsteps. I stood up and crouched, activating my sweeper. What meet my eyes was a team of Sweepers in orange uniforms, signaling a retrieval team. Upon seeing them I put my sweeper away and woke up Blinx. The retrieval team walked into the cave with us.

"Signal the Factory," one of the Sweepers said. "We found them." Blinx looked at them confused.

"How long have we been gone?" he asked.

"A day and a half. When you didn't call in or return, we were sent out," another Sweeper responded.

"We need to get back. The Tom-Toms are planning something huge, and we need to stop it," I said. They nodded and led us out of the cave. We pulled down our goggles against the high wind and snow, and about two hours later, we reached the Goal Gate. I looked at the light as I jumped in and didn't see a rainbow tint. When the technician saw us enter, he sighed in relief and walked towards us.

"The CEO wants to talk to you two. But he said it can wait until you both get some food. And warm up," he said noticing my shivering. Even though our coats are made of high resistance material that also keep the wearer warm in sub zero temperatures, the cold still managed to freeze me a bit. And a glance at Blinx told me the same was for him too.

"Thanks, we'll be sure to get that taken care of," Blinx said, managing to not make his teeth chatter. And with that, we headed back to our dorm.

-XxXxX-

"So what you're telling me is that the Tom-Toms have been capturing time monsters and letting them dissolve into crystals, then collecting those crystals, but you're not sure where? And every entrance is guarded?" the CEO asked us. We got to his office half an hour after we got back, and it took another fifteen to explain everything to him.

"That's correct. They might also have patrols around, but we were spotted before we could check," Blinx said. Th CEO furrowed his brow in thought for a minute before he spoke again.

"We need to take action right away. I will assemble a squad of Sweepers, high ranked ones, and we can attack tomorrow. Blinx, y/n," he said, turning to face us, "I need you two to lead tomorrow."

"Ok then. Meet at 9 o'clock tomorrow night? We can use the dark as cover," I suggested. The CEO nodded at me.

"That works. Alright then. You two are dismissed." With that, we left the office and heads to our dorm.

"Do you think we can take them down?" I asked as I pulled out two packets for hot chocolate from the cupboard and milk from the fridge. Blinx didn't respond. "Blinx?" I said looking at him. He was staring at the floor with a blank look on his face. I've seen this happen before, and set what I had in my hands down. Walking over to him, I sat down on the bed and tapped his shoulder. I expected him to jump, but he didn't respond. "Blinx?" I asked, starting to get worried. He's zoned out before, but never this deep. I flicked his ear.

"Ah!" he yelled and jumped back on the bed, landing on his back.

"Calm down, it's okay," I said, trying to hide my worry. He had his hand over his chest and he looked afraid. He saw me and relaxed, closing his eyes.

"Sorry, guess I zoned out again," he said. When he made to get up, I pushed him down.

"You did more than zone out," I said. "You were completely out of it, and I couldn't get any response from you." He looked down at the floor. "What were you thinking about?"

"B1Q64. The final battle against the Chronohorn. That place looks like Momentopolis structure wise and," he stopped, I knew the rest. He barely managed to stay alive during that fight, and the journey to get there beat him around a lot too. I got a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around him. He's only like that around me, and keeping it bottled up inside himself won't help him. _We need a therapist here. This job has dangers and clearly leaves scars on some,_ I thought as I stood up. Making sure he wasn't going to zone out again, I stood up and started making the hot chocolate.

**Well how do you guys like the chapter? I know people probably aren't seeing this as the game is not popular right now, (maybe one day though, the future is very full of surprises) but I thought that this would be fun and wanted to share my idea for Blinx. Hope you all, if anyone is reading this, have a good week. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Fights and Large Air Ducts**

"Alright everyone, listen up!" Blinx yelled. We were in the Gate Room with the squad, and we were filling them in. "The Tom-Toms have built some kind of large metal arena filled with time monsters, though we aren't sure of the purpose. Every entrance is guarded. We don't have to worry about time monsters, the Tom-Toms have them contained. It's in the Spring/Summer side of the world, so we have the grass as cover. We don't have exact coordinates, but we're going to have to walk for half an hour to get there. Keep your eyes open for patrols. Any questions?" No one said anything. "Okay then. Let's go." With that we jumped into the gate. Looking again for the hue of colors, I actually saw some. Except they were brighter.

"Did you see-"

"Yes." We heard the others land behind us, the snow crunching beneath them. We started walking to the border, and headed towards the arena.

-XxXxX-

"I know you said it was a large scale thing, but it's even bigger than I thought," a Sweeper said in a low voice as we crouched on an overhang overlooking the arena. Even more time monsters than before filled the main room, and were killing each other. The resulting crystals were pushed or fell into a hole in the floor, to who knows where.

"Three entrances," I said. "Three teams of six can take the doors, and we can get inside. Or we Pause, smash the roof to get to the arena, and take out at least some of the monsters," I trailed off, thinking about how neither would get us inside without trouble, and the base was full of Tom-Toms.

"We have the vents," someone said. "We could Pause, and one of us could get in."

"Then another Pause, or a Fast Forward, and a team could get in."

"They could signal the others to attack a certain entrance, and we could pin them."

"Get in the vents and split up, notifying when we found something."

"We don't even need the doors then," Blinx said. "Alright, here's the plan. Bandit, your team will open the vent and get in," he started addressing a Sweeper in all black with black and white fur, the pattern making it look like he had a mask on. "Then another team will go in, and another, until we're all in. Then we split up into different directions. Stay in the vents and be quite. If you see a way to take them down or the purpose of this, signal immediately. We need to get this done fast." Bandit and his team, Team Night Kings, crawled forward. Seeing an opening, Bandit hit the control and sped off with his team at his heels while everyone else, save the Sweepers, were frozen. They successfully made it into the vent as the Pause ended.

Another team Fast Forwarded, speeding into the vent before anyone saw.

Another group used a Slow, and made it.

Another group used a Pause as well, and all four teams were in the vents.

"Now," I heard Blinx whisper, and we sprinted as he activated a Fast Forward. We jumped into the vents, and found the rest of the squad in a large central vent. Why there was a space in the system to fit twenty Sweepers, I will never know. Blinx made some hand signs, and the teams split, one to the right, one to the left, and two, plus us, forward. We tried to move as quietly as possible, but we kept kicking each other as the vent got smaller. Eventually, the vent split into three again. The two teams each took a side, and Blinx and I went straight. We almost made it to the opposite wall, when I heard some voices. Looking, there was a shaft with a grate to my left. Tapping Blinx, we turned to the vent. Looking through, we saw Benito pacing around, yelling at Ugo.

"And _why _is there a bunch of monsters reforming in the arena when the crystals should be collected and handled _properly_?"

"We are collecting crystals, boss. Just some don't get touched and reform. But there is a plus side to this," Ugo said hurriedly. "We don't have to capture monsters, meaning less suspicion from the Sweepers."

"Too late," I whispered. Blinx glanced at me and smiled smugly. Benito grunted.

"That's why I thought of this. To collect crystals without suspicion. We need money, mainly for me. And to take out those mangy cats. And that means selling more time." He stopped pacing and sighed. "If only we didn't need to waste money for this place. But fear not, for this shall help us get more than ten times our original profit, and less of those cats in our way." He said this with great flourish that made us giggle. Our plans were the opposite of what he wanted.

Just then, our communicators went off and we were connected to a group video chat. We crawled away from the vent we were looking through, until we were out of earshot. Thankfully, no one started talking until we were all safe to do so.

"What did you guys find?" I asked.

Bandit replied to me. "A large storage area filled with crystals. And they're glowing brightly, like something's trying to form. We're going to sweep a few and see if that calms it down. Anyone else find something?"

"Benito. He's using this place to gather crystals to sell, without us noticing." Blinx said.

"I don't need to say it, but that's a fail," someone said. This drew many chuckles.

"Alright. Everyone meet a Team Night Kings' position. We'll sweep some crystals and figure out a plan from there." We ended the call and our screens switched back to maps. Using them, we made our way to the rendezvous . Looking through the grate Team Night Kings opened, we were able to see how many crystals they meant. The room was as large as a school cafeteria and was packed with crystals, sorted by type. We dropped down, and were practically blinded due to the glow. I don't know how we didn't see it in the vents.

"Whoa," someone behind me breathed, and I heard more boots land quietly on the floor.

I activated my sweeper and swept up a Pause crystal. It vibrated, and said I had a Pause control, even though I only had one crystal. Frowning, I swept up a Retry crystal, and the exact same thing happened. The other also started sweeping up crystals, but we couldn't carry many. And if anything, the crystals glowed brighter. I had two spots left, so I swept up a yellow crystal. I got two Slow controls. This was even more puzzling. But before I could voice my concern, a door on the left of the room opened, and two Tom-Toms walked in. I hit a Pause control at lightning speed, and we hid amongst the crystals. We could only wait and hope they don't find us.

**Hey how y'all doing? Hope you're having a nice time this week. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Run**

"See? What did I tell you? No one's here." One of the Tom-Toms looked at his buddy exasperated. "All this talk is making you hear things. Let's go." He turned to head out, but his partner stopped him.

"It can't hurt to look around," he said as he walked over to the pile of Fast Forward crystals. A team of Sweepers were hiding there, but everyone remained frozen and would be until they left, or we got out. His friend walked over to the Rewind crystals. He stuck his hand in the pile, up to his shoulder. And jumped back in surprise. I knew what he touched, as I saw Team Night Kings duck into that pile. _Why did you have to do that?_ I thought.

The world tinted purple, and everything went backwards, except us. Team Night Kings took the opportunity to move to the Retry pile. The control ended, and the last ten seconds played again, except the Tom-Tom didn't jump. I sighed inwardly, but we weren't out of it yet. The world turned blue and everyone ran towards the door. We made it out just as time started flowing again. And then someone hit a Pause again, and we kept going undetected.

"I'm out someone take over." We looked at our sweepers, and no one had a Pause control, except me. I hit the control, and we had another ten seconds of cover. But the control ran out just before we made it to the exit. Skidding to a stop, we looked for a hiding place. Unfortunately, there are few places that you can hide twenty Sweepers. And there wasn't a vent we could enter. I started to walk over to the door to check the guards, and my foot hit a loose floor panel. I was able to wedge open the panel, and the hole was big enough to fit half of us. But looking closer, it had a tunnel in the back. I couldn't see where it went.

"Guys, in here," I said. I slipped into the tunnel and Blinx followed, then everyone else. Crawling along, we could here the boots of Tom-Toms moving around above us. But they weren't running, so they still didn't know we were here. The tunnel sloped downwards. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I slid down it, it was too steep to crawl. But there wasn't an even surface at the bottom. Before I knows what was happening, I crashed into a vent and fell to the ground. Something landed on top of me, hard.

"Sorry, you okay?" I recognized Blinx's voice. Looking up, I saw him holding out a hand to help me up, but someone was behind him. I grabbed his hand and calmly acted like I didn't see the guy, and reached for my sweeper. I recognized the figure and I didn't like him standing right behind Blinx. Unfortunately, I was a bit too slow, as he grabbed Blinx and twisted his arm behind him. "Behind you!"

I was able to jump out of the way of another Tom-Tom behind me, and hit a Rewind. The control ended just as Benito released Blinx, and we took off. But we didn't get far. Blinx fell to the ground, and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I tried to fight of the wave of nausea that came over me. But I fell and don't remember hitting the ground.

-XxXxX-

"Y/n, wake up. Y/n, come on wake up." Someone was nudging my leg, and I groaned. The last few events before getting knocked out came back to me, and I snapped me eyes open. Looking around, I saw Blinx next to me, his hands handcuffed around a ring on the wall, suspending them above his head. My arms were in a similar position. We were in a cell with steel walls, and no window. Other than the light that came under the door, it was dark. Neither of us had our sweepers.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"Good. Though, I could do without the chained-to-the-wall part, but I'll live." Just then the door opened. A Tom-Tom walked in and came up to us.

"See you two are awake. What were you doing in our ventilation system?" He asked, clearly the interrogator. Neither of us spoke, until I decided to push his buttons.

"Nothing. We just decided to see how nice it was. It's really cosy in there, you should try it sometime." The Tom-Tom was not amused. Blinx remained silent, but I saw the flash of humor in his eye. He was probably thinking the same thing.

"You're not going to play this game. Now tell me what you were doing, or I'll have to-" he didn't get to finish, as a boot came out of nowhere and kicked his face, effortlessly knocking him out.

"Bandit!" He turned to us and smiled. He turned on his communicator.

"Guys we found them. Find their sweepers and let's get out of here fast. We don't have much time," one of his team mates said as he .handed Bandit a hair pin. He started on Blinx's handcuffs. "We need to get out of here. The crystals are becoming unstable and soon will explode or cause another Chronohorn like monster. Or something worse." Bandit finished on Blinx and came over to me.

"What can be worse than a time golem?" The thing that nearly got Blinx in B1Q64, and almost destroyed the world. What else can do that?

"Never ask that," Blinx said. "There's always something worse." We were able to get into the vent above us, the room wasn't that tall. We made it to the end of the vent, and ran down the halls of the structure. We met up with the other teams, one of which handed us our sweepers and communicators. We put them on as we ran. Just then, and an explosion rang out. We stumbled, but kept going. We burst out the doors, and saw the Tom-Toms running up ahead. But a tremor shook the ground, and everyone fell. None of us made to get up, as we turned and a time monster, one no one could identify, stood over the ground. It looked like a dark rainbow dragon of death. It was tall enough to block out the afternoon sun.

"Oh goddesses. Run! Someone yelled. But the monster had other ideas. It roared, and a force field separated Blinx, Team Night Kings, and me from the others. They tried to get back to us, but couldn't get through, only watch. For some reason I will never know, the dragon turned to the six of us on the ground, and roared. It spit time energy at us in six colors, and I felt a rush of energy before the world turned black.

**You may not think rainbow dragons are scary. But when they tower almost as high as a skyscraper and aren't neon colored, they can be frightening. Hope you all have a good week. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: What Happened**

"Ugh," I moaned as I woke up. _How many times can you get knocked out in a day? _

_A lot. Why am I asking that question? _The last thought sounded like Blinx. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. We were back in the Factory, and in the infirmary. I was in a bed, with Blinx groaning next to me. Clearly in a separate bed. On my other side, Bandit and his team looked like they were just waking up too. A shadow fell over my face, and I could see it was Catherine when I looked up.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as I sat up.

"Like I was blasted by a rocket or ran over by a truck."

"Aren't we all," Blinx said as he put a hand to his head grimacing.

"Better than dead," Tora, a female Sweeper on Bandit's team with dark pink and white fur and bright orange eyes, said.

"What happened out there?" Catherine asked. By now we were all fully awake. But some of us were still laying down, not wanting to move.

But the question did make us hesitate. _What did happen out there? _

_Uh, it hurts to think. _This time it sounded like Tora was talking to me, but she didn't move her lips. We all thought hard until "A weird time monster in a dragon form attacked us and we passed out." We all looked at each other. We said the same thing at the exact same time. Catherine looked at us a little weirded out. But not as much as us. _That was, really creepy._

_Though it's creepier that my thoughts sound like other people. It's only me in my head. _Bandit this time.

_Why do my thoughts sound like other people? I can't be thinking of quotes. I've ever talked to Team Night Kings before. _This was me.

_My head is messing with me. _Tora.

_Are you all going to get out of my head? _Now Juro, a Sweeper with gray and black fur and red eyes was talking to me. I groaned out loud as the others looked around with worry, alarm, and surprise written on their faces. Catherine kept looking at us, not sure what to think. I decided to try something.

_Everyone raise your hand. I know your all awake so don't try to ignore me. Three two one._

All six of us raised our hands in perfect union. We were all weirded out now. Glancing at the others, I knew something was up.

_Stick out your tongue at y/n. _Everyone stuck their tongues out at me.

_Thanks Tora._

A giggle sounded through my head. _No problem._

"I think this dragon gave us some boosts. I think we're telepathic," I said out loud.

"That would explain the synchronization. And the weird actions you're all doing," Catherine said.

"Just what we need. A gigantic time monster on the loose in the Dual Season World, if it didn't disappear when it struck us, and powers," Arch, a Sweeper with brown and tan striped fur with yellow eyes said. We sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the situation set in.

"We need to let the CEO know. This will affect everything we do in the future. Then we can figure out steps from there," Bandit said.

"Only if you guys are feeling up to walking. You don't have any actual injuries, just feeling like punching bags," Catherine said.

_I only have a slight headache. _

_Same_, Juro said.

_We might be linked in more ways than one, _Blinx said.

_Let's not test that theory, _Bandit responded.

"We'll be fine," Tora said as she hopped it of her bed. We all still had our clothes on, including our boots. We must not have been out for long after we got back. We grabbed our sweepers from the pegs on the wall, thanked Catherine, and walked out onto the walkway to head to the control room.

We went in silence the entire way, no one speaking out loud or telepathically. None of us wanted to show signs of something being off, even though Sweepers near us did shoot us sideways glances from time to time. Word must be out about what happened in the Dual Season World. We entered the control room and started up the stairs. We waited at the top for the CEO to have a minute to talk to us. When he did, he took us to his office, which was in a separate room. He closed the door behind us as we stood in front of his desk. We started when he took a seat.

"I suppose this is about the mission?" he said.

"The mission to the Dual Season World, had some issues. No casualties," Blinx said. "But the crystals they had created a dragon like time monster. Which shot at us. And, well, gave the six of us telepathy."

The CEO looked confused by this. "So a time monster formed, and gave you all powers?" He asked folding his hands in front of him on the desk. We nodded. "That's not how time monsters work."

_What now? _I asked.

_No telepathy now. There's no point. _Tora said.

"We know. But this might not be all that we gained. We don't know what happened for us to have this power, but it happened," Arch said out loud, glancing at Tora and me. But we didn't get any further. Blinx breathed in sharply and collapsed. We were checking him in an instant.

_Can you hear me? _I asked frantically.

_Yes. I'm awake and can hear you. _Blinx responded. We all breathed a sigh of relief. The CEO looked at us perplexed.

"He's awake. Just..."

_I can't move. Not sure why._

"He can't move," Arch said.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I told them." Blinx opened his eyes. He tried to sit up, but fell back to the floor. His tail twitched in annoyance. We helped him sit up, and after a few minutes he could support himself. We stayed on the floor after that.

"Well, you clearly aren't lying. I just hope that this is your actual powers and the telepathy isn't a side effect of what you actually gained." We sat in silence and thought about what this actually meant.

"Will we all have relapses like this?" I asked.

"I hope not, but probably will," Arch said. "I just hope it doesn't happen at the wrong time."

"Then let's not have any of you go on solo missions until you all get passed them. I'll move your assignments so that you're all together. Until we know what fully happened to you six, and how to deal with this time monster," the CEO said. "Let me know of any developments."

"We will," Juro said. "Can you walk?" he asked Blinx.

"Yeah, I'm able to," he said as we helped him up. He stumbled a little, but Arch caught him. He nodded his thanks. We left without another word.

**Okay I left hints to who has what power. See if you can guess who has what. Hope y'all having a good time. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Relapse**

"Why are we back here again?" I asked as we trekked through the waist high grass in the Dual Season World. It's been a week since we talked to the CEO, and Arch and Juro both collapsed in that time span. Arch got dizzy and fainted, he was up on his feet again in a few minutes. Juro just got tired for a few minutes and had to take a break. Both happened on sweeps.

"We have to find another disruption. It might be that dragon, or Tom-Toms," Blinx said.

"Personally, I hope it's the dragon. Might be able to sort this all out," Tora said.

"We can't do this forever," Arch said.

_This is useful in fights though,_ I told everyone. In the last week, we learned how to control the telepathy, sending it to only a few of us at a time and send them faster. Before we had to think then through so it was as fast as talking, now we can have a five minute conversation in a minute.

"Stay focused guys. We're almost there," Bandit said. Just as he said that, we heard a roar followed by shouting. We looked at each other.

_Guess we get both. _We ran up the hill we were climbing and saw a battle going down when we crested the hill. Tom-Toms we're running around, some shouting, some panicking, and others shooting the dragon. The dragon was meanwhile swiping at the pigs with its claws and tail. It occasionally blew a gust of air with its wings, and appeared to have no thought of retreating.

"Any ideas?" Juro asked, crouching in the grass. We came up empty.

_How are we supposed to fight a flipping dragon? _Tora asked.

_Same as I fought a golem that could control time and was made of stone. Find it's weak point._

_It's tail? It's mainly attacking with that _Arch said.

_Try the face or stomach _I said.

_Just shoot it _Tora finalized. She activated her sweeper, took aim, and fired. She hit the dragon on the wing. It turned to face us, but didn't attack us surprisingly.

_I've been waiting for you _was all I heard before a bright light blinded me.

When I opened my eyes, we were in A000. We were still together, disoriented and confused above all.

"Wait, it was _waiting_ for us?" Blinx asked. Even with his experience, I'm guessing that even he hasn't seen this before.

_Yes I have. I need your help._ The dragon landed in front of us. We could tell it was male due to its voice.

"What do you mean? It can't be that bad, can it?" Tora asked.

_It can actually. This resulted in the need to give you power over time, to a certain point._

We can control time?" Bandit asked.

_Yes, you have telepathy and the ability to use a time control at will, but only one kind each. _

_Just my luck,_ Blinx said. Juro patted his back.

_Yes you have been through a lot. But you are also the most qualified Sweepers for the task. _

"Well it can hear our telepathy," I said.

"Wait who has what control?" Arch asked. "And how come we can't use them?"

_You'll see in time. Now you must go back. This universe needs you. _With that, we were sent back to the Dual Season World, laying on our backs in the grass. Sitting up, the dragon was gone and the Tom-Toms were leaving.

_This is getting better and better. _

-XxXxX-

"Well this complicates things," the CEO said. We apparently neutralized the disruption, and came to fill in the CEO, who needed to know that something was going to go down.

"Blinx resolved the B1Q64 incident without any powers, and that was big. Can there be something bigger than that?" Arch asked.

"Well, yes, that was a world. It might be more than one world affected this time," Bandit said.

"Just let me know if anything develops," the CEO said and we left. We were about to step onto the walkway, but everything went black around us.

"What's going on?"

"I can't see."

"Wait for your eyes to adjust."

_Where are you guys?_ I asked.

_Look behind you, _Tora said. I turned, but I didn't see my friends. I just saw colored light. Soft colored light, so I wasn't blinded. It was like the light at dawn, there but barely. With a start, I realized that it was our eyes. Red for Juro, orange for Tora, yellow for Arch, green for Blinx, and blue for Bandit. I guess my eyes were purple, it was the only color missing. The other Sweepers were starting to notice as well.

"What the heck?" Bandit asked calmly.

"Guess we have flashlights now," Arch shrugged.

"They don't provide that much light," Blinx said.

"Well, I can see a bit now," Tora said walking away. "Might as well find the problem." We rolled our eyes and followed her. Just then the billboards turned on. The picture showed us a world, and all its inhabitants, plus some Sweepers, were frozen in time. Or dissolving into crystals super slowly. It switched to another world that was experiencing the same thing. And then another. It did this for another and another. It kept going until Benito appeared, looking distraught.

"What the heck did you lousy slobs do? These worlds are falling apart here! Even those mangy cats are affected! Who-" Benito got cut off by another transmission, and the alarms going off in the Factory. This time the screen showed the Goddesses, and the time crystals in a star shape with the Retry crystal in the center. There was ancient characters in the screen, and then our current language underneath. It read "guardians of time."

_Well this is interesting_ Tora said. The alarms and billboards shut off again and everyone was silent, letting the situation sink in, the fact of our eyes glowing forgotten. As if someone hit the play button, the Sweepers ran to the gates, for any world. But the gates were down, and no one could get in or out of the worlds. Suddenly, the power came back on, and the gates opened. A team came out of the gate that we were trying to get into, and we were able to talk them.

They were pretty freaked, as for them time froze, and they could still function cognitively, but not physically. We explained what happened here, from the power to the transmissions. Apparently they froze when the power went out here. But one thing was for sure:

Whatever the dragon was going to happen was starting.

**Shout Out to thebluedemon. Thanks for favoriting the story. And also to catgirl 140 for linking this and giving feedback. This was overdue, sorry. Have a good week . Go get 'em fey! **

**-ThinMintE **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: More ****Disasters**

"Hurry!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Just run!"

_Goal gate to the left guys!_ Avalanches. And time monsters. A lot has happened in five minutes. We jumped in haphazardly and landed safely in a pile in the Factory.

_When did they get snow powers?_ Tora asked. None of us knew.

_Weirder monsters equal bigger problems _Arch said.

"Come on guys," Blinx said. It's hasn't even been a day since we lost power, and problems are starting to pop up. This was the third mission we had to retreat from and we can't get anywhere.

"B1Q64 is next on our list," Bandit said. I glanced at Blinx, but he didn't have a visible reaction. We got onto the walkway and arrived at the gate shortly. After hopping into the gate, I looked around. We were on a platform with a ramp leading to a plaza it overlooked. There were tall buildings surrounding the plaza and everything was made of dark stone. There was no one around.

"Time Square. We need to get moving," Blinx said. "The monsters will be farther in." We hopped down off the platform onto the ground, and swept up some trash lying around for ammunition. We walked towards the arch, when I started to feel dizzy. I crashed into Juro.

"You okay?" I nodded. I tried to walk in a line, but I couldn't. I fell, and everything went black.

"Y/n!"

"Are you okay?" Tora asked. I couldn't move my body at all.

_I'm okay guys. _They sighed. _Just stuck. _

_You sure?_ Juro asked.

"Yes," I said sitting up. I kept my eyes closed to try to keep the dizziness under control.

"Good thing no one's here," Arch said. We nodded. After another minute, I was fine. We got up and kept moving. There were no time monsters around, along with anyone else.

We came up the Déjà vu Canals, and everything was still silent. Same with the Hourglass Caves.

"Weird," Tora said. Just then she tripped over a rock and fell. Normally we wouldn't be concerned, but she didn't get up right away.

_Tora._

_Here._ She got up a second later. "Might have been my relapse. Like what happened to y/n earlier, but super fast." We nodded and kept looking. We came up on the Forgotten City, and that was deserted too. But when we got to the base of the mountain ramp, we finally heard something. A roar of a monster.

We sprinted up and stepped on some bounce pads on accident, sending us up to a floating platform above the mountain. We all thankful stuck the landings. On the platform there was a monster, the looked like a squash with arms. It was yellow in color with purple numbers on the fat lower half. It had stubby little wings and arms, and the face looked remotely humanoid (imagine Dust King with a different color scheme, wings, no wands, and no beard and horns). Behind it was a human girl with blonde hair in pigtails and a white camisole gown with cropped white balloon pants. She also had on slippers, so I had no idea how she was moving so well.

She spotted us and her face lit up soon seeing one of us in particular.

"Blinx!" she yelled, swinging the board she had in her hands at the monster. It missed by a long shot, but the monster pulled back regardless.

"Princess Lena?" Blinx said in disbelief. He shook it off and ran at the monster, activating his sweeper we followed him.

"Any ideas on the attack pattern?" I asked Lena.

"It sends aerial attacks. The wings can't be used for fights, but it can blow a hard wind. I don't know anything else." I relayed the information to the rest of the team, and we got ready to fight.

I fired the first shot. It was stunned for a few seconds and then it jumped high into the air. We dodged the attack, but it shook the platform like crazy, and we fell. Then it unveiled another attack. It started flashing and fluttering its wings. High speed winds came at us, and we had to grab the floor to avoid being lifted up. Bandit lost his grip and went flying. The monster grabbed him and threw him into the platform. Hard. The monster was also lifted into the air and when the winds stopped, it slammed into the ground vibrating the platform again. It didn't land on Bandit, but it was close to doing that. The monster provided to jump around, trying to grab at us. Juro ran over to Bandit, and pulled him out of the center of the platform. The rest of us attempted to shoot the monster. Some missed, but Blinx hit it. And it angered it when it moved again. This time it didn't stop the winds until we were all in the air, despite all of us hanging on. It changed the direction of the wind so we were slammed down into the platform. Getting up again, Lena was with Blinx, Bandit was next to me and the rest were getting up as the monster started jumping again.

_Guys, time controls!_ I yelled.

_We used them all in the last missions trying to not get buried by snow and beat up by time monsters!_ Arch replied.

_I have one Pause. We have to time this just right. _Just as Tora said this, Arch hit the monster again.

_Does Bandit have a Retry? If so, why isn't it working?_ Blinx said as the winds tried to lift us up again. I grabbed Bandit and the floor just in time.

_Of course I don't. Falling from a tree top and landing on my back, remember?_ We were all relieved to hear him. _Before you ask, yes relapse, and yes can't move. Just finish this._

_What do you think we're doing? _ The winds just wouldn't let up, but I heard an explosion and it stopped. We landed hard.

_Use the wind to hit it! _Arch said. With three hits, I guessed half its health was gone. But it changed its pattern. This time the wind held us down and out. It lasted for a minute and when it stopped, Tora leaped to her feet and shot the monster.

"Nice!"

"Thanks!" The floor was vibrating again, and the monster got confused somehow. It looked at Blinx, than me, than Tora, and finally Bandit, as if just noticing there was more than one of us. Juro was behind it and had an opening. He took it. The monster was stunned for a moment. Then it roared so loud we had to cover out ears. "Use that Pause!"

Tora hit the button, and everything tinted blue. Our ears were ringing due to the sound, and we couldn't hear for five seconds. We looked around for the monster, but we couldn't see it. Only after the Pause ended did we find it. Above us. It must have used some wind when it was roaring. We saw it too late to dodge. Then Banfit suddenly leapt up and yelled "Pause!"

**Well that's a wrap! This is my longest chapter by far, at 1189 words. *party streamer noise* Hope you're all having a good week! Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Controls**

The world stopped. Everything was tinted blue except us. Lena was holding onto Blinx so she also wasn't affected.

"I thought we only had one Pause control," I said.

Arch nodded. "We did." He looked at Bandit. "What did you do?"

Bandit stood there and blinked, like he just woke up from a trance. "I don't know."

We stood there for a minute. "Time should've started flowing again," Tora said thoughtfully. "This isn't a normal time control."

_The dragon said we had power over time. This is what he meant._ The realization hit us all.

"Move back guys." We did as Bandit said. He activated his sweeper. "Flow!"

If we hadn't have moved, we would all be pancakes. The monster came crashing down onto the platform, shaking it violently. Bandit pulled the trigger on his sweeper and fired, hitting it straight on. The monster dissolved and time crystals flew everywhere. Normal ones, not gold ones. We swept them into our sweepers, completely filling our slots. Then we met in the center of the platform.

"That was crazy. Are you all okay?" Lena asked. We nodded.

"First, What was that? I've never seen that kind of monster before. And what were you doing up here swing a board at it?" Blinx said as he looked at Lena.

She looked suddenly sheepish. "I heard the monster and ordered everyone to heard to Momentopolis so they would be safe. And I went to look for it."

"Without a weapon or guard?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'm surprised you found the board up here. That answers two questions actually," Arch said. "Three is how do we get down." Looking around, there wasn't a visible exit.

"There's normally some rope or something. It might've gotten thrown off during the fight," Lena said.

"Found it." Juro kicked the rope with his foot. "The other end reaches the mountain top. We can climb down." He did just that, sliding down the rope with his hands. We followed. All of us landed at the bottom safely.

"Do we head through Temple of Lost Time then?" Blinx asked. Lena nodded and started to lead us to the mine. There was an entrance at the foot of the mountain. We headed into darkness.

"Any lights?" I asked.

"They should've been lit, but I don't have anything to relight them." She was in the lead so she didn't see our faintly glowing eyes. At least it helped our ability to see a little.

We went down a steep drop at the end before ending at a platform. I heard skidding behind me, and then something crashed into my legs from behind, knocking me over. Tora caught me from hitting my head in the ground. Arch pulled Juro out from under me as I stood up.

"You okay?"

"Yep just slipped." Juro tried standing up, but he winced and fell back down, Arch and me catching him. We lowered him to the ground.

"Obviously not."

"Where's your sweeper?" Arch asked.

"It must've gotten knocked off when I fell. Can't use a Retry-" his sentence was cut short but a red tint covering his body and taking him back up the drop. Lena raised an eyebrow.

"What was that?" She asked. We shrugged. Juro came back down and turned out fine. "I didn't know you could still use a time control without your sweepers."

"Remote," Arch improvised.

We left it at that. We traveled through the temple without any incident.

"Why is there a temple in the mountain?" I asked. Lena shrugged. We continued in silence.

The mine was just as uneventful. As was Everwinter. Except we kept sliding around, but no one got hurt. It was only after the forge that we had any activity. We arrived at an arena with guards posted outside the entrance. Their weapons were at their sides, but they raised them as we got closer. Upon seeing Lena they lowered them and saluted. They let us in without question. We went to a section of the arena on the top floor where we could talk.

"Is this Momentopolis?" I asked looking around. Blinx nodded, his eyes unfocused. Lena lead us to some benches.

"So why are you guys here?" she asked when we were seated.

"There's been some trouble recently. We're checking all the worlds for major disruptions. Many have found monsters with new powers, like snow and earth control." Blinx explained it like this was a normal occurrence, even though this was a high level emergency. Lena nodded slowly, understanding.

"If you need to leave, then go. I'm sure others need you more than we do."

"Just keep everyone safe as best you can. If anything happens, try to contact us." Lena nodded and we stood to leave. Then we froze.

_What the?_ Tora asked.

_Did the Factory loose power again?_ Arch questioned.

_Could be, or-_ Blinx didn't get to finish his sentence as just then everything kicked back into motion. Looking around, no one seemed to notice time stopped except us. They were a bit confused about our questioning looks, but let it slide. We made it to the bottom floor when time crystals came out of nowhere. _Could be from the stop. _

We didn't have time to figure it out. The crystals formed together into one of the worst monsters out there. "Chronohorn." Blinx had showed me the profile multiple times. But this was for real.

"A Time Golem?" Tora asked. The people of the world looked at the monster in fear. "Move it! Get out out of here!" Tora's yelling knocked everyone out of their stupider and they ran to get out of the arena.

"At least this place has a floor this time, right?" But when I looked at Blinx he was frozen.

"How do we defeat this guy?" Bandit asked calmly. Blinx didn't answer. "Tora keep him busy. Arch back her up." They nodded while the rest of us pulled Blinx away from the monster. We sat him down by the doorway and tried to snap him out of it. He didn't respond to anything, and started shaking slightly. He finally jumped when I pulled his goggles over his eyes. He looked at us quizly

"I did it again, didn't I?" he asked me. I nodded as he hung his head.

"No one can blame you. The last time you defeated this thing you nearly died right?" Juro asked. He didn't wait for an answer. "You've got a team now. We're going to watch each other's backs. You can do this."

Blinx nodded, took a shaky breath, and stood up. "Let's show him what we can do." Just then we heard a scream followed by Arch yelling. "Tora!"

**I know. Another cliffhanger. I'm evil. Hope you're having a good week, that isn't wacky like mine has been. Go get 'em fey! **

**-ThinMintE **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Round Two**

We ran out at Arch's shout. We found Tora being held by the monster in its larger hand, her arms pinned to her sides. Arch was trying to shoot the Chronohorn, but it wasn't shooting bombs everywhere so his shots were ineffective.

"Wait, Arch!" Blinx yelled. "Wait for the eye to open up and then shoot the eye. That's it's only weakness!" Arch halted and ran over to meet us.

"A little help here!" Tora said. Lightning crackled in between the Chronohorn's horns, and it shot at us with it. We barely dodged.

We fanned out into a circle around the platform, waiting for the next attack. It was focused on Tora. The monster raised its fist and slammed her down onto the ground next to me. A Retry kicked in on her, but it stopped when she was closed in the Chronohorn's fist again. Blinx facepalmed. _That was helpful._

"Can you tempt it to shoot bombs?" Bandit asked, ignoring the telepathy.

"Stay spread out and hope for the best," came the reply.

The Chronohorn then shot out bombs. Arch shot the red eye, but the monster didn't flinch. Instead it grabbed him in its other fist. Deciding that Arch was more interesting, Chronohorn dropped Tora onto the floor. I caught her before she hit the ground. Then time froze around us, but with a blue tint. Blinx had hit the button on his sweeper, with a Pause control. But it didn't even last. The Chronohorn had taken it like it was a hit, and dropped Arch in the process. He ran up to us.

Blinx's eyes widened, as did mine. Third stage. He switched over to a Slow control, and the effect happened again. We let him take care of it. Rewind. Fast Forward. Record. All worked and a crack appeared in the clock in its face. But then things got tricky again. It didn't lose it's armor. Instead our bodies stiffened, and time crystals came flying out of our sweepers including the Retry crystals. Looking at the monster, the crack was gone.

"It healed itself," Bandit said. We all just stared.

"Great. Now what are we going to do?" Tora asked.

"Bandit, try using the control thing again," Blinx said.

"Pause!" Bandit's shout was all it took to activate another control, the stage happening over again.

"Who has what control?" I asked.

"Bandit has Pause and has blue eyes, Juro has red eyes and Retry, so Record!" Blinx said. As the last word left his mouth, the control took effect and damaged the Chronohorn once again.

"It corresponds with our eye color, so I should have Fast Forward!" Tora said. The speed control also activated and hit the monster.

"Mine is Slow!" Arch said once the Chronohorn was moving again. His control made it invulnerable for a few seconds again. Once it was moving, I called out mine.

"Rewind!" The last call was enough to complete that stage and again the clock was cracked. Failing to heal itself, the boss shot bombs onto the battlefield. But this time they exploded on contact, and the ice bombs coated the field in ice, making us slide and trip.

"I hated these things," Blinx said to himself mostly. "Still do."

We jumped as lightning came at us. Chronohorn started to scatter bombs again, but Tora shot it in its weak point. This time it worked and the boss took the hit. And cloned itself.

"Either we did more damage than I thought or it's switching around on us," I said. "Hit both at once!"

Just then the platform tipped. We managed to grab onto the grating, and avoid the bombs that were blowing up at the bottom. Keeping our sweepers in hand, we waited until the platform was level again. The monster and its clone tried to bomb us again, but we were too fast for it and shot it. It took another successful hit. The bosses now tipped the platform again, and we repeated what we did before. Except this time one clone scattered bombs at the bottom while the other electrocuted the grating we were hanging on to. Having no way to get to the ground and discharge, the electricity coursed through us painfully until the clone stopped a full minute later and the platform leveled out. We managed another hit on it and then Chronohorn merged back onto one and lost its armor, revealing the green body underneath. It lunged at me in final attempt to defeat us. It didn't reach me as a bomb hit it straight in the side and defeated it. Blinx breathed a sigh of relief before putting his sweeper on his back and running up to me.

"Are you okay? Is everyone alright?" Blinx said as the others came around us. They all nodded.

"Hurts like heck though," Tora said. Electricity sparked through our fur, and some discharged into the grating. We jumped onto the floor, and felt the electricity disappear from us.

"That helps," Juro added. We started walking towards the door, but we tripped over the simplest things, rocks, our feet. Eventually we stopped trying and rested.

-XxXxX-

I woke up to someone shaking me. I opened my eyes and found a stranger trying to wake me up. Then I realized he was one of Lena's guards. I sat up and he backed off. Lena was waking Blinx and her other guards were getting Juro, Bandit, Tora, and Arch. All of us were pretty groggy, but we got up anyway.

"Thank you all for your help," Lena said once we were on our feet.

"No problem, princess," Blinx said. With that we walked out and headed back to the goal gate. Thankfully, we didn't run into any more monsters along the way.

We arrived back in the Factory just as another team was going in. They stopped when they saw us fly out and do a less than perfect landing. In other words half of us fell and the other half barely stayed on their feet. The other team ran down to meet us. They're frowned when they got closer.

"No offense but you guys look terrible." That was an understatement because our coats were ripped, as were our gloves and pants, and our fur was sticking up all over the place. "What happened?"

"Another, smarter and tougher Chronohorn," Blinx said. They didn't say any more. We walked out of the gate room for B1Q64 and headed to the CEO to update him on what we had learned.

**Sorry I didn't update last week guys, things are getting crazy. Hope you all have a good week. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Frozen**

We walked onto the CEO's office, silent as we waited for him to finish what he was doing. He looked up from the monitor he was watching and took us in.

"Well you all certainly had quite the road trip," he said sarcastically.

"Well, this is what happens when you're a Sweeper," Arch replied.

"Anyway, we came in to let you know that we discovered a few things while on B1Q64," Blinx started. "One, time monsters that we originally defeated, like the Chronohorn, are reappearing with increases in strength and intelligence. Second, we figured out how to use time controls without our sweepers." The CEO's eyes widened at that ever so slightly.

"Really?" We nodded. "Anything specifically needed for it to happen or is it random?"

"We need to say the name of our control. Y/n has Rewind, Blinx has Record, Arch has Slow, Juro has Retry, and Bandit has Pause. I'm not going to say mine because it'll activate then," Tora said.

The CEO sighed. "I guess that this means that we're going to have bigger problems?" We didn't know. "Go and get cleaned up, and rest. We'll need you six later if something else pops up, though I doubt that this can get much worse." We left at that.

Everyone we passed on our way to our rooms were also scuffed up a bit, but not as nearly as us. We arrived at the Living Quarters a few minutes later. Entering our dorms, we each grabbed a snack and went to our rooms. We crashed as soon as we laid down, not even bothering to undress.

-XxXxX-

"What the heck?!" I said as I was woke up by an alarm going off. I jumped out of bed, banged into the counter, and fell into Blinx,who was on my floor for some reason. Just then Team Night Kings came running in, Tora tripping over my legs.

"Come on!" she said as she got up, also yanking Blinx and me to our feet. We all ran out to the main hall as the alarms were still blaring.

"Emergency announcement from Management. Bosses from B1Q64 incidents and other, new boss monsters are popping up all over the worlds. Time is freezing-" Again the billboards turned off and power went down.

_Again? It's barely been a day!_

_Calm down Tora_ Bandit said. _We need to see what we can do about this. _We took off towards the generator room, and froze.

In front of us was a barrier, flashing colors. The Sweepers and other Factory workers tried to get through, but were repealed. We also tried and the same thing happened. The barrier lit up suddenly and we shielded our eyes. When we opened them, the workers on the other side were all frozen in time and looked to be in a trance. The barrier disappeared and we rushed to them. We tried to rouse any reaction out of them, but anything we tried failed.

_It's like they turned into colorful stone_ Juro said.

_I'm just surprised that no one has noticed our glowing eyes yet_ I said.

_Don't say that_ Blinx replied. _You'll jinx it._ Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case.

The power suddenly flipped back on and the boards were airing static. Then it went to a transmission from the CEO.

"This is an announcement from Management. There appears to be a disruption in the Factory itself. I believe most of you have discovered what that is. I regret to inform that we have lost an eighth of our Sweepers and other workers to this. We will not stop working to resolve this." An operator came up to him and whispered something into the CEO's ear and left as the later of the two nodded. "I have also just received information that the worlds in that part of the Factory are now disconnected from our time flow. And Sweeper teams there are also frozen and are unable to return at this time. But I still expect all remaining forces to work as hard as they can till this is over. You will receive new assignments on your communicators. Best of luck everyone." With that the screens went back to static before flipping to the Time Factory logo.

Everyone looked to their wrists and checked their new assignments. Team Night Kings, Blinx, and I were all assigned to a world called the Dream World. Looking at the file for the world, it's apparently a place where dreams spring up, nightmares lurk in the shadows, and it's always night. Illusions can be caused by the nightmares, and boss monsters can also have this power. Normal ones don't though. The world was ranked at A+, meaning it was only for the elite Sweepers.

"Not again," Blinx groaned. We looked at him curiously. "Long story."

We decided not to push him, he probably wasn't going to be comfortable talking about it in the open. We just started walking to the gate, as the moving conveyor belts were turned off. Other workers got to work moving the frozen ones out of the way, but only a minority. We started walking to the gate.

It took about five minutes to get there, and we were the only ones in the room other than the technician that operated the gate. We jumped in and landed in a valley surrounded by gentle grassy hills. The sky was clear and full of thousands of stars, and a full moon. A gentle breeze was blowing, and all in all it was peaceful. But we were all on edge.

"So what do you think we'll find here?" Juro asked.

"Hopefully, something that can tell us why this is happening and how to stop it," Blinx said. "At least destroying the monsters delays time disasters. Do what we do, and stay alert." With that we started walking.

We walked for about half an hour, only encountering a few chronoblobs. We dispatched them quickly. Then something black and goopy jumped out of the grass. It had a pointy head and a skinny body, and swayed when it stood. Blinx stopped us, and activated his sweeper. We followed. We stayed like that for a moment before the thing leaped towards us, and separated into six balls of goo. We fired, but it just created more gunk. The debris landed on us and inched up our coats.

"Whatever you do, don't fall unconscious. Then this nightmare will have control over your sleep until you defeat it," Blinx said as the now identified nightmare goop tried to crawl up my face. I scraped it off, but still some remained. The stuff now on my hands stretched to reach the stuff on my face, and it joined onto my face. It decided to cover my nose and mouth, preventing me from breathing. I tried to get it off, but it wouldn't let go. I tried to use my sweeper or my control, but I couldn't speak and I was too dizzy to use my tool. Eventually I fell and the last thing I heard before I passed out was the four thuds of the others.

**Well, what would you think the nightmare would show you? I know everyone has different fears, and this story has you as the protagonist, and I'll put it in if you let me know. And a big thanks to anyone reading! I was honestly expecting no activity, but I got a surprise there. Thanks a lot! And another thing guys? We're into the double digits! **** Again, big thanks, and have a good rest of the week! Go get 'em fey! **

**-ThinMintE **


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Nightmares**

_I looked around at my new surroundings. It was basically a void. A black, empty void that I was floating in. "Guys? Where are you?" I shouted. There was no response. I also tried the telepathy, but the same thing happened. "Okay then. I need to find a way out of here and help the others."_

_"Do you really think you can stop it?" a voice asked. I turned around and surprisingly it was the time dragon that gave us powers._

_"Uh, Yeah I do, actually," I respond. "You're the one who gave us these powers to stop it in the first place."_

_The dragon regarded me for a second before it tilted its head up and roared. I closed my eyes and covered my ears. When I opened them again, the dragon was still a dragon shape, but made on dark goo and was must sleeker and menacing. It flapped its wings and took off, but not before I grabbed its tail. It didn't notice. It few towards a wall, and took a sharp turn. I let go before the tail hit the wall and landed on my back. Getting up I noticed I was in the Factory, in the main hall. The conveyor belts were moving, the TVs were showing the Factory logo, and the place was deserted. That set me on edge, as the place was always bustling. A door flew open and Team Night Kings came out. They sprinted over._

_"There you are!" Tora said. Arch grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the door they just came out of._

_"There's trouble. A lot of it. Blinx is already in the field, but he sent a distress signal," Bandit explained._

_"We need to go! Now!" Juro said shoving me in the back, trying to get me to go faster. We broke into a run and jumped into the open goal gate. We landed on a metal platform supported by a single central beam. The sky was a dark gray and bright blue water was churning, sending foam high up into the air._

_"Hey guys! A little help here!" Blinx called from across the platform. He was battling a time monster that looked like the Chronohorn but it was made of black goo that was dripping off of it with a red face._

_We rushed to him, but the monster hit the platform hard, creating a shockwave that blew us all back. I started falling, and my fingers grabbed the very edge of the platform. I tried to pull myself up, but lost my grip and fell. I landed in the churning water. I hadn't taken a breath before I entered, and the water pulled me down. I started to lose air. I went deeper and deeper, until I couldn't see. Then something grabbed my hand and pulled me to the surface in an instant. I coughed and looked up to see Tora. She pulled me to my feet and, now recovered from near drowning, rushed to the others who were dodging bombs the monster shot out of its palms. Lightening leaped from its face and struck the bombs, hurling all of us back. The monster floated over to Blinx, who was struggling to stand. He fell back down. The monster held out a hand and tapped Blinx's chest. Blinx's eyes widened and he stiffened as a bright light enveloped the area. When it was done, there wasn't a monster. Instead, Blinx was laying there, stone still. Rushing over, we tried to get a reaction out of him. We were relieved when he started to get up._

_"You fools," he said in a deep voice, way deeper than he normally had. Our smiles dropped. Blinx rose to his full height, and opened his eyes. They were the same color as the monster's face. He started shaking, and his fur darkened until it was fully black. An aura of time energy flowed over him, and his clothes changed to a brown body with black sleeves and pants. His goggles, gloves, and boots also changed to black._

_He laughed maniacally and punched the ground. The blow knocked us all down, and Blinx walked towards Bandit. Touching him, Bandit underwent the same transformation. He repeated this process with Juro, Arch, and Tora. I stood up, and drew my sweeper._

_"Aww, he thinks he can defeat us," Tora taunted._

_"How cute," Juro said._

_Bandit ran at me and knocked me back with a kick. "Pathetic."_

_"Guys what are you doing? It's me!" I yelled._

_Blinx came at me and quickly took me down. "The ones you know aren't here anymore," he said. "There is only me."_

_I kicked his feet out from under him and he released me as he fell. "I'm sorry!" I yelled before I shot at them. The bomb blew up in out faces._

-XxXxX-

"Y/n! Calm down, it's alright. It's okay," I heard as hearing slowly came back to me.

"Get away from me!" I shouted as I tried to run, but I was so disoriented I ended up rolling over the person trying to calm me down. They caught me before I could escape and pulled me into a gentle hug.

"It's just me," Blinx said. "It's alright." I gratefully returned the hug. After a second we broke it.

I looked around to find the others still in a fitful sleep. I stepped back so Tora wouldn't kick me. She was trying to run it seemed. Bandit released a loud whimper.

"Do you think you could stay here and watch them? I know there's a plant that'll weaken the nightmare so they can wake up faster. I haven't seen any yet though."

"Sure," I answered, albeit shakily. I hoped that nightmare never came true.

Blinx nodded and left. I sat down in the middle of the others, a safe distance away to avoid any stray reactions after Arch punched the metal toe of my boot. It wasn't hard enough to hurt him though. Juro started sniffling, and after closer investigation I noticed he was crying. I wondered what they were dreaming about.

I waited for about fifteen minutes before Blinx came back. He had a handful of milky white, five petaled blooms.

"Turns out there was a patch behind a hill," he said, placing a few of the flowers by everyone each. They calmed down a lot rather quick, but Juro was still crying slightly. "Must be really bad for him," Blinx said when he noticed. "At least you guys got small amounts. It's worse as more gets on you."

The grass on the hill rustled. I narrowed my eyes a little, and Blinx noticed. He turned around just as another nightmare blob came at him. It caught him completely off guard, and he fell. His head hit the toe of my boot hard, causing him to wince. The blob started inching up him. He got up, but fell back down.

"Must've hit my head harder than I thought," he said quietly. I tried to grab the glob, but Blinx stopped me. "If you touch it, it'll try you as well."

"Well, What do I do then?"

"I'll be fine. I've dealt with this before." The nightmare prevented him from talking any more, then from breathing. He passed out. The nightmare blob faded out of sight and Blinx shivered, but was able to breath again. I grabbed a few flowers and placed them by his head.

"I hope you're right," I said quietly.

**Well I'm not sure what you're all afraid of, and nightmares are generally scary, so I took my best shot at it. Hope you all have a good rest of the week. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Rescue**

I was very tense as I watched the others. Nothing huge came, just the stray time monster like chronoblobs, spikers, and octoballons wandered over to us one at a time. I started to notice that they all came from the same direction. A few minutes after I shot the last monster that wandered over, a scream sounded behind me. I turned and barely missed a punch from Tora. I grabbed her wrist.

"Tora! Stop! You're alright," I said, repeating what Blinx said to calm me down. She kept struggling.

Pulling her into a gentle embrace, she finally realized where and with whom she was. "Thanks," she said giving me a slight squeeze before we stepped apart. She looked around. "So what happened?"

"Remember that warning about nightmares in the world file? Got us minus Blinx, I woke up, nightmare got Blinx," I said.

"So what do we do- ah!" she yelped as Bandit kicked her shin with the toe of his boot. "There is a reason we have steel toed boots, but that's not one of them," she said, rubbing the sore spot. I chuckled.

Her ears perked up. "Do you hear that?" she asked quietly.

I listened hard. "Nothing."

"Exactly." She stood up into a crouch. "Weren't there crickets and other sounds before?" She was right.

The sound of footsteps reached our ears. We laid down in the grass, which was surprisingly tall, and peeked over it slightly. I saw a person coming over the hill and nudged Tora. Then came about ten more. I didn't bother to get an exact count, and ducked back into the grass, Tora following my actions. We were in ear shot now.

"Isn't there supposed to a large number of nightmares here?"

"Supposedly. There were many reports."

"We haven't found a single one." We turned to look at our friends.

And there was a ring of nightmares around them. They repeated the process of what happened before, our friends shudders growing stronger with each nightmare. _Crud. _

_Well how do we stop it? _Tora asked.

_How should I know?_

_You can't. _A new voice joined in on our conversation. Blinx.

_Blinx! How-_

_I can't keep this going for long, nightmares' too strong. However, there's someone who can help. Find-_ he stopped talking as he shuddered a lot, curling into a ball.

_That looks painful. _Tora said as Blinx started whimpering.

_Watch out. _I said as the strangers advanced on our position, still we were unnoticed.

_Let's move before-_

"Your Majesty, on the hill!" one of the people said, pointing to our friends.

_You had to jinx it, Tora._ I said. We stood up.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" one of the people asked, pointing a spear at us.

"Halt Ian. They're Sweepers," a lady said, clearly the one in charge. The guy, Ian, lowered his spear.

Someone whimpered behind us. _I'll try to handle the nightmares._ Tora turned to check on the others.

"So you have come to handle some sort of crisis or are just patrolling?" the lady asked.

"Both," I answered. "May I ask who you are?"

"I am Queen Halima. I rule the Dream Empire. And you are?"

"Y/n. Behind me is Tora, and our friends on the ground are Bandit, Arch, Juro, and Blinx." Halima's eyes flash in recognition of Blinx's name.

"On the ground?" she says looking behind me. I turn and see Tora trying to whack nightmares with her sweeper, using it like a sword. The things stuck to the end, and she shot a piece of trash out of it. The nightmares flew off with the bomb and exploded.

"Allow us to assist," Ian said, charging in with his spear. The nightmares fell into puddles as he stabbed them, and effectively melted them all in under a minute.

"That was effective," Twitch said.

Halima walked over an looked at our friends. Tora and I tensed, not sure they were trustworthy. She stepped over to Blinx, and shook him gently. He lashed out with a punch, but it was very weak.

Halima sighed. "Come. We have a remedy for this," she said as she picked up Blinx. Others from her group came and picked up our other friends.

"I'm sorry, but how do we know we can trust you?" Tora asked. "What if you're enemies pretending to be allies?"

"You don't," Ian replied.

Blinx shifted in Halima's arms, and his face went to an expression of concentration. _What is- _

_Some girl named Halima. _I said.

_Good. She can help. _Blinx said.

_How close are you to actually waking up?_ Tora asked. Blinx didn't respond, as his hands went for his sweeper. One of the others in the group prevented him from reaching the weapon and Halima pressed her index and middle finger behind Blinx's ear. After a bit he quit struggling and sighed. Halima removed her fingers.

"Acupressure is effective in these cases," she said as she walked off. Tora and I followed her, and the rest of her group after us.

We walked for about fifteen minutes before we reached a carriage without horses. It was big enough to fit all of us. Once we were in the carriage, Ian went to the front and powered up the carriage. We started moving. During the ride, the others also had to be calmed, though no one else woke up. After another fifteen minutes, we reached a large city that was stark against the night. The lights made it look like daytime.

We arrived at a big palace that was made of marble, looking like an inverted night sky. We got out of the carriage once inside, and we walked to a wing on the right of the castle.

Halima knocked on a dark wood door before entering. An older human, looking to be late sixties to early seventies, looked up as we entered. "Your Majesty," she said bowing low. "Of what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Mela, can you help these Sweepers? The nightmare has trapped them," Halima said as she gestured to our unconscious friends.

Mela gestured to the beds lining the room, and the people placed them in them as Mela got something from the shelves. She walked up to Blinx first. But before she could do anything, he started coughing and shot straight up. After a minute, he stopped. But he didn't lay back down, he opened his eyes.

"I hate those things," he said, unzipping his jacket a little and massaging his throat. He looked around, or started to before Tora interrupted him.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed as she wrapped him in a hug. He was surprised for a second before returning the hug. They broke it a second later as Mela moved onto Juro.

"So what happened with you?" I asked. Blinx just shrugged.

"Rather not talk about it yet." I nodded. He's given me that answer before, but always talked eventually.

**So that's another chapter down and uploaded. So exams are coming up, and I need to study, so no worries if I miss an update or two. This story is not going to be abandoned. Have a good rest of the weekend. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE **


	13. Chapter 13: Too Much

**Chapter 13: Too Much**

"Blinx. It is good to see you again," Halima said, stepping forwards. Blinx bowed his head in respect.

"Your Majesty. Perfect timing, as always."

"How do you know her Blinx?" Tora asked.

"Let's just say that what happened with us happened with my normal team. I was the only one left conscious when she came and saved us. And she came right as I fell unconscious too." He turned and nodded at Mela, who waved back.

"You seem to have new teammates, Blinx," Halima noted. She waved her hand, and the people behind her left silently.

"Emergency team up. Though, I wouldn't mind working with them in the future."

"I'm keeping that in mind," Tora said.

"Since when are you the leader?" I asked.

"Since the rest of my team is out cold, that makes me defaulted temporary leader of Team Night Kings," Tora replied with a flourish.

_Not all of us are out,_ _Tora _Bandit said as he woke up. Tora jumped and also hugged him. "What happened?" he asked out loud.

"Nothing much. Just got rescued by a queen, and waiting for the others to wake up." Bandit looked around and examined the room, his eyes lingering on the window for a split second. Tora caught it.

_Why? We aren't in danger, _Tora asked exasperatedly.

_You never know when we're going to need an exit, _Bandit responded.

_That doesn't mean you need to map out escape routes every second of the day. _Tora sent a slight glare at her team leader. _Relax for once._

_I think we all know that it's not in Bandit's nature to do such a thing, _I said. This got an eye roll out of the blue-eyed sweeper. He and Blinx got out of bed and walked over to us. I flicked Blinx's bell again, getting an eye roll and giggles from everyone else. Even Bandit and Halima smiled.

_Success, _I thought, my little playing lightening the mood a bit.

_What success? _Tora asked.

_Nothing._

_Uh huh. _We stopped when we heard a groan.

"What happened?" Arch asked as he and Juro woke up.

"Nightmare. Slimy pointy thing, remember?" Tora asked. "These guys helped us." She gestured to Hilima and the other behind her. Arch and Juro regarded them for a second before nodding politely and walking over to the rest of us.

"Now that you are all awake, would you mind telling me what is going on?" Halima asked.

"There's been a little problem. We're trying to fix it, but the Tom-Toms keep getting in our way," Tora said, trying to not give away how bad it really was. Halima just nodded.

"I will leave you to it then. Feel free to return here anytime you need." She turned and left.

_That went well,_ Arch said.

_Let's just go before we get into more trouble,_ Bandit responded. Blinx led us out of the castle and into the city, taking as many back paths as possible. No one spoke until we were out of the city.

"Did you see anything suspicious while we were out y/n?" Bandit asked.

"Yeah, I did actually. All the time monsters I saw all came from the same direction. I only saw like five of them though."

"Then we head that way," Blinx said. He looked at me to lead, and I started walking in the direction I saw the monsters come from.

-XxXxX-

_Well this answers why the monsters were coming from here,_ Tora said. In front of us was a facility like we saw in the Dual Seasons World, except this one was operational and working. There were more dangerous monsters in there like golems and fire dragons. There were also a few new kinds that looked like killer rabbits, spiders, and stars.

I glared at the new kinds from the top of our hill, where we were spying from. The Tom-Toms were chatting and walking about lazily, unaware of us.

_How do we get in? _I asked.

_We sneak in again, duh. Use a Pause control and KAZAM, we're in before anyone notices,_ Tora said. She reached for her sweeper before Bandit stopped her.

"Pause." The world took a blue tint as everything froze. We looked at Bandit, who got up and started walking. "We're free to roam around this way. Save your controls for when we're separated, Tora." We shrugged and followed the usually silent leader. We walked around the perimeter and found an open door that froze when the Pause was activated. We went inside and found it to be a maze. There were corridors leading this way and that, and random doors were placed on every wall.

"How much do you want to bet Benito made the floor plan?" I asked.

"Lots," Juro replied. "This place is a mess layout wise."

"Let's find the room where the crystals are. Then we can go an beat up all the time monsters," Tora said enthusiastically.

It took forever to find the crystal room. There were tons of crystals, somehow not creating a boss monster. They acted like normal too, three crystals of a kind and one other for one control, and four of the same for two. After filling our sweepers, we set off to find the main arena. Bandit tripped while closing the door, knocking into Juro and creating a domino affect. We untangled ourselves in less than a minute and helped Bandit up, who was struggling to stand.

"What's wrong Bandit?" Tora asked.

"Nothing, I just tripped. I'm fine." He tried to stand on his own, ultimately failing. Juro and I eased him down onto the floor.

"Clearly something is wrong. What is it?" Juro asked softly.

"Just a little dizzy, that's all."

"I think it's more than dizziness," Arch said. "How long have we been walking around?"

"About an hour and a half," I said, looking at my communicator's clock.

"Maybe we get tired from using our controls too much," Arch muttered thoughtfully.

"Then stop using your Pause. We can use our sweepers, and there's a ton of crystals in the room behind you," Tora said.

"We'd need to stop for longer than that, Tora." Blinx said. "Bandit needs to rest a bit and we need a place to hide. y/n, see if you can find a vent or something."

"They do like making those things big," I said as I stood and walked down the hall, Blinx looking the opposite way.

_Over here, _Arch said as soon I took five steps. Turning around, I saw Tora taking off a vent cover by the floor as Juro tried to keep Bandit awake.

"This is why I keep coins on me," Tora said as she flipped the aforementioned coin before placing it in her pocket. She took off the vent cover and pulled on Bandit's arm. The tired Sweeper sluggishly moved as Tora directed him, climbing into the vent silently. The rest of us followed, Blinx putting the vent cover back on once we were all in. Right as he put it back in place, Bandit's consciousness faded and time resumed its flow. We squeezed in a little farther, listening to the voices of the Tom-Toms and the cries of the monsters. Juro started stroking Bandit's head, looking at his friend with a concerned expression. No one spoke.

-XxXxX-

Our heads turned when we heard a slight groan. Bandit shifted and we were next to him in an instant. The blue-eyed Sweeper opened his eyes and looked at us, confused.

_What happened?_

_You used your control too long and fainted, _Tora answered.

_We managed to get into one of the ridiculously large air vents and we've been sitting here for a few hours,_ Arch added.

_Are you feeling better? _Juro asked.

_Yeah, still a bit dizzy, but I'm better. _He tried to sit up, but couldn't. Juro eased him back to the ground.

_Don't. We've waited this long, we can wait a bit longer," _Tora said. Bandit only nodded and closed his eyes again.

_None of you did what I did. It's not fun._

_We won't. _

_Did you guys manage to find the arena?_

_We did explore a bit, but the arena isn't close. It's probably on the other side of the building," _Arch answered. Bandit nodded. He sat up without any trouble this time, and we started off for the other side of the arena.

There were a bunch more time monsters by the time we got there five minutes later. The arena was packed, the monsters could barely move other than moving in place and biting. The octoballons were moving in one direction as well.

_Well, this complicates things, _I said. _Does anyone have a bomb?_

_Not that I know of, _Bandit said as the others shook their heads.

_Either us or them better find a solution to this, before something worse spawns,_ Blinx warned. _There's too many crystals and monsters here for it to be safe._

_What if we use our sweepers to use a Pause, jump down, and shoot them while they're frozen. Blinx, you could use your Record control to do twice as much,_ Arch suggested.

_Sounds like a plan to me. Who has Pause controls?_ Blinx asked. I took hold of my sweeper and nodded. "Record."

The world took on a green hue that got mixed with my blue Pause. We kicked off the vent and jumped out, sweepers in hand. We instantly started shooting, damaging and taking out monsters left and right. I kept as many Pauses going as I could, Tora taking over when I was out. When she was out, Arch took over, and then Juro and Blinx.

"End!" Blinx shouted once was out. We rewound back to vent, and I hit the Pause control again. We did all our actions again, up to when Blinx's recording ended. The actual Blinx took over the Pauses, and we kept shooting.

_Bandit when I'm out, don't take over, let time flow again, we may need those later, _Blinx said. Bandit nodded.

We kept shooting until the world turned back to its original shading and time started flowing again. The defeated monsters cried out and dissolved into time crystals, which we swept up immediately. The Tom-Toms on the other hand yelled and ran, while other pulled out weapons and fired. We tried to avoid as many as possible, while monsters we missed came at us as well. I shot at a Tom-Tom before getting punched in the back of the head by a big killer rabbit monster's ear. Tora jumpkicked it away and helped me up. Shaking my head, I activated a Slow control, giving us more breathing room. I shot a super bomb I forgot I had in my sweeper at a rabbit monster, defeating it and other nearby. Looking around, I noticed that the monsters were backing off and the Tom-Toms were helping us shoot the monsters while also trying to shoot us. Aiming up, I shot at an octoballon, as another shot at me. We both hit our targets. I aimed to take out the one that shot me, as it dissolved into crystals thanks to Blinx. Nodding, we shot the other remaining octoballons, all of us refilling using the missed shots from dust herders and octoballons and using various controls to our advantage. We stopped when the last of the monsters were defeated and the Tom-Toms had fled from us. Panting slightly, we headed for the door.

I heard clinking behind us and turned around.

_Uh, guys? Turn around._

The others turned and froze.

In front of us was a tornado of crystals, spinning faster and faster, before they collided in the center.

After the light faded, there wasn't a time crystal in sight.

Instead there was a huge wolf with fur as dark as a starless, moonless night, and eyes full of violence.

**Stars, this took a while to come out. I am so sorry everyone for being so late. To be fair, I have been dealing with sewer backups, school, and extracurriculars. But I am back and writing again, about our favorite time wielding cats! (Also, the new norm for chapter length is 2000 words) So I hope you have a great rest of the week! Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE**


	14. Chapter 14: Taking Its Toll

**Chapter 14: Taking it's Toll**

The wolf regarded us for a second before throwing its head back and howling. We snapped our hands over our our ears, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

_When I opened them again, the others weren't with me. It was just me and the wolf._

_The wolf growled as it crouched before pouncing towards me. I scrambled out of the way before turning and firing a shot off. I hit it in the face, stunning it for a second._

Guys, where are you?_ I asked frantically before dodging another pounce._

With the wolf! _Tora said._

What? No, I'm with the wolf! _Blinx replied._

It's with me! _Bandit added._

No way, the wolf is running after me! Juro_ said._

It just nearly bit my head off! _Arch yelled, right as I dodged a bite aimed at my head as well._

I hit it! _Tora yelled, as the wolf spun and slammed into me with its tail._

It didn't freeze!_ Bandit yelled._

How come we can't see each other and are fighting the same monster? _I asked._

Maybe it's an illusion? _Arch suggested. _Tora, where are you?

Skirting the outside of the arena.

Running which direction?

Clockwise!

I'm going to run counter clockwise, hang on for a sec guys!

Easier said than done!_ Blinx and I yelled at the same time as I dodged a swipe, the claws as long as my sweeper._

Are you still running Tora? _Arch asked._

Yeah, why?

Because it can't be an illusion or invisibility separating us, I ran around the arena in the opposite direction and didn't run into you.

Then what is this?_I asked. I ran over to the wolf and shimmied up its leg, climbing onto its back. _I can touch it!

That means it can touch us! _Bandit said. _Dang it! Nailed me in the side with a swipe.

Are you okay? _Juro asked._

I'm okay, but stings. Retry won't activate until I can't fight anymore.

Bullseye! _Tora yelled again. The wolf was not a fan of being ridden, and started trying to buck me off. I held on with my legs and one hand while I activated my sweeper with the other. I aimed behind me and hit its back, stunning it._

I just hit it. Did it affect you guys at all?

It's still trying to grab me! _Blinx said. I heard Bandit yelp again._

Dang this stupid wolf! _The wolf had recovered by now, and was jumping as high as it could to throw me off. I shot its back again, and it collapsed onto the floor. It stood shakily, and I shot it a third time. It howled and dissolved as a white light blinded me. _

I opened my eyes to see the others standing where we were before, their heads down and eyes closed. Their breathing was slow and even, and shaking them didn't rouse a reaction. The wolf was also standing there, in the same state as the others. I could still hear them yelling to each other using telepathy.

_Guys, I can see you all now. _

_Wait really? How? _Tora asked.

_I defeated the wolf, but it seems like it's all a mental. We're still by the door, facing the wolf, but everyone except me is just standing there. Eyes closed, soft breathing. Like you're all asleep or something. _

_So it has sleep powers apparently?_

_Seems so. I'm gonna shoot the actual wolf. _

_I would not recommend that,_ Bandit said, voice strained.

_I second that,_ Blinx said. _Wait for at least one more of us to wake up._

_I hit it again!_ Tora shouted. She flinched and opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. _Well, that was unexpected._

_Dang IT! _

_Bandit be careful! _

_Try fighting while you're in my condition._

_If it defeats us mentally, do we physically need a Retry?_ Juro asked.

_I hope not. I haven't been able to get another one with all that's been going on._

_I'll have to see if I can use my power on others._

I sighed and turned to Tora. "You ready to pound this thing?"

She nodded eagerly, pulling out her sweeper. "Let's destroy this thing." We took aim and fire.

_WATCH OUT! _ Tora ducked as the trash came flying back at us, and I held the trigger on my sweeper. I caught the trash in midair, before storing it for later.

"Too close," I said out loud._ Guys, we can't touch the real thing. You're on your own. _

_NOOO! _Bandit yelled as he started shaking. Tora and I ran over to him and tried to catch him, but as soon as we touched him, a blinding light filled the room again.

_I pulled out my sweeper and fired, nailing the wolf in the face. Tora ran over to where Bandit laid fallen, breathing irregular. She checked his sweeper, then looked at me, concerned. "No Retry." I growled in frustration as I dodged a tail spin, before the wolf switched targets. It pounced at Tora, who swung her sweeper as I fired at it. They hit at the same time, stunning it for a longer period of time. We took the opportunity to move Bandit out of the way, before facing the wolf again. It pounced at us, and we shot at the same time. Mine was too low, but Tora hit it right in between the eyes, causing it to howl and dissolve. The room flared up in white light._

And I opened my eyes just in time to see Bandit collapse. Tora and I caught him, and eased him to the ground. He groaned as he opened his eyes. "Wha... How.."

"I can't believe I'm telling you of all people this, but be quiet. You've used enough of your energy for now," Tora said. "I'm going to help the others. y/n, stay here and keep an eye out." She went over to Juro, touched him, and instantly her eyes snapped shut and her breathing slowed. I looked at Bandit, who was looking back at me with a confused expression.

"When we touch one another, we can enter their fight with the wolf. It's a very weird monster." Bandit only slightly nodded in understanding. Just then Juro and Tora jumped as they woke up, Juro instantly kneeling by Bandit's side as Tora went to help Arch.

"y/n, go help Blinx. I'll help Bandit." I nodded and walked over to Blinx, and put a hand on his shoulder. I was blinded by light yet again.

_I opened my eyes to find myself seated on the back of the wolf again, right behind where Blinx was sitting on it as well. _

_"Y/N!?" _

_"Sup," I said as I grabbed the fur on the wolf's back to keep from falling off. "How're you doing?" _

_"I'm doing okay, this wolf is _fast!_" _

_"I CAN SEE THAT!" I yelled as the wolf took off sprinting around the arena. Holding on for dear life, Blinx shot at the wolf's head, scoring a direct hit. The wolf didn't even seem fazed. He shot it again, and got the same result, although the wolf slowed a little. He shot it a third time, and the wolf howled and dissolved, and we were blinded once again by a bright light._

We all turned as a pained howl sounded throughout the structure. The wolf kneeled down and collapsed, dissolving into a manageable amount of time crystals. Blinx, Tora, and I swept them up, completely refilling our sweepers. We turned to the others.

Juro had Bandit's head on his lap, that latter looking slightly sick. Arch was keeping a lookout by the door. We all gather by Bandit and Juro.

"How're you feeling?" Blinx asked. Bandit whimpered.

"I think he's coming down with something," Juro whispered.

"In there boss. That's where they are!" "And it's where the noise came from!" We all froze at the sound of the shouting. Reacting quickly, we stood, Juro and Arch supporting Bandit, and silently made our way to the vent we entered from. I grabbed the cover for it. Thankfully it wasn't too high up, and we were able to quickly get in. I entered last and placed the cover on, just as the Tom-Toms came in.

"They were here!"

"They must've gotten away," the other muttered.

"Wonder what Boss will say about this."

"DON'T TELL HIM! He'll have our hides for this!"

"Commander, all the crystals are gone!" A tall pig groaned in frustration.

"Get some more time monsters and make it double time! We can't let Boss know."

"Yes sir!"

We all breathed a silent sigh of relief as the Tom-Toms left. _It seems that they forgot about us._

_Thank goodness. We need to get back to the Factory, and NOT raise the alarm,_ Blinx said. I pointed at Bandit.

_Can you move Bandit?_ Juro asked gently.

_I think I can._ He got onto his hands and knees and started crawling. Blinx stopped him and took the lead instead. With that, we started crawling through the vents and towards the outside.

-XxXxX-

We finally stopped running when we exited the forest surrounding the structure. With no pig or monster in sight, we sat down, panting slightly, and caught our breath. We all turned when we heard a thump. Instantly we were by Bandit's side, who was panting harshly and sweating. Juro pulled his friend's onto his lap, and felt his forehead. His eyes widened.

"Goddess, he's hotter than the Forge of Hours!" We winced slightly when we heard that. Tora took off her glove and put the back of her hand to his forehead as well. She pulled her hand back as if she was burned.

"He's hotter than that! Your glove took some of the heat there, Juro."

"We need to get back to the Factory, now," Blinx said. He tried to grab Bandit to help him up, but the sick Sweeper flinch harshly when he did so.

"I don't think we can move him," Juro said softly.

"We'll just have to wait then," I whispered.

"What about nightmares?" Arch asked.

"There's a type of plant that they hate. It's a flower with white, crescent shaped petals and a yellow center. If we can find a patch of that, then we won't have to worry about them. Besides, they aren't that common in fields," Blinx said.

"What about earlier?"

"That was a rare case."

"I'ma gonna find these flowers, just in case. How close do we have to be?" I asked.

"They won't get any closer than 2 meters, but we can be a bit farther away." I nodded and started walking away.

And instantly stumbled into said blooms. They were shorter than the grass, which was why we couldn't see them. I turned to the others. "Found them."

-XxXxX-

"His temperature has finally gone down," Juro said with a sigh. Arch and I gave relieved sighs as well. We had been waiting for about four hours, and Tora and Blinx had decided to get some rest while we had the down time. Bandit had gone from panting to calm, steady breaths, and had stopped sweating. Juro started gently stroking his friend's fur.

"Hopefully we won't have to do anything like this again," I said.

"And now we know what happens if we use our controls too much," Arch added. "So we can avoid a similar situation." I just nodded. Our heads turned as we caught the sound of whimpering.

"Not again," I sighed as I scooted over to Blinx, Arch following. The ginger cat was shaking, and slight whimpers were escaping his mouth. I gently shook him, trying to get him awake.

"Does this happen often?" Arch asked, flicking Blinx's ear when shaking failed.

"Not that I know of. He's pretty good about covering them up. I only found out because I heard him screaming one time coming back from a late study session. Our rooms are right next to each other."

"Makes sense." I shook Blinx harder this time, and also called his name. He only shook harder. "He is really asleep."

"Which isn't good, because I can wake up and hit us with a really strong punch," I responded. "It can take awhile for him to fully wake up from a deep sleep."

"Try tickling his neck or something," Juro called. "Something that can't be registered as an attack or trap." I followed his advice and gently tickled him behind his ear, while Arch poked his side. Blinx shook some more before bolting up, a light scream escaping him. I put my hand over his mouth, surprising him. His look said "Well, crap."

**I have done it! I've written another chapter of Guardians! I can update! I hope you all have a good rest of your week and a fantastic weekend. Go get 'em fey!**

**-ThinMintE**


End file.
